ON YOUR MARK: WEEK 7 DAY 2

Mark 7:9-13

9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Jesus said, “‘You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!” (Mark 7:9).  Last fall at the Foundry Church we learned, and hopefully, became people who were all about living in Coram Deo. Living in Coram Deo means living every moment of your life in the presence of God, under submission to God, and for the glory of God. If we live in communion with God through faith in Jesus and walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, we will avoid the pitfall of created traditions that sound like what God has said, but are far from the heart of it. Think of it like this, after a birthday party you can clean the kitchen to “mom’s standard,” or you can start cleaning the kitchen with mom. This is something that occurs in our house and I love to hear the conversations, singing, and laughter that happens when this is taking place. No one weaponizes what mom said, they work, talk, joke, dance, and keep going right alongside her, which in the end produces an immaculately clean kitchen as well as strengthened relationships of those involved.  

The Message translation of Matthew 11:28-30 is a good word picture for this: “‘Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.’”

Take the words written in Matthew to heart and try to live them out!